‘We were Britain’s first heat pump owners. This is what we wish we’d known’

Peter and Anne Watts made headlines when they became one of around four British households to have an air-source heat pump fitted in 2008.

That Mr and Mrs Watts, 88 and 82 respectively, had installed a heat pump a decade before the likes of Boris Johnson seized upon them as the future of home heating was highly unusual.

“We had a reporter up from the local paper asking us about our solar panels and our heat pump,” recalls Mr Watts. “In the days afterwards, we got a call from the BBC – I thought it was a prank call from the neighbours.”

Yet 17 years on, the pump is nearing the end of its lifespan – and the price tag for a replacement is £17,000, around £10,000 more than they paid for their original.

Mr and Mrs Watts are in a highly unique quandary – one that shines a light on the shortcomings of the Government’s heat pump drive.

Households currently benefit from a £7,500 grant to install a new pump, thanks to the generous Boiler Upgrade Scheme run by the energy department. But no such generosity exists for early adopters whose systems are now nearing their end.

It begs the question: how do households – who relied on low prices or government grants to get their heat pump fitted the first time around – afford its replacement?

Returning to a gas boiler won’t work as Mr and Mrs Watts’s home has never been connected to the gas grid. Fitting a heat pump required a full-scale renovation of the house, including new fibre insulation and double glazing, which was itself a novelty at the time.

The couple, who ran a business selling animal feed and now live off a private pension, cannot afford a new heat pump. They have already stripped back on holidays since electricity prices first rose.

It is a problem that the pair, who live in a four-bedroom detached house in Buckinghamshire, did not foresee when they became one of the first British households to have an air-source heat pump installed.

According to the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, the industry standards body, just four air-source heat pumps were installed in 2008, before which there was no data at all. The chart below shows how installation numbers have increased since then.

Indeed, the Watts’s heat pump landed them in the pages of The Telegraph 17 years ago, where they boasted of the heightened efficiency of their “eco home,” which also featured solar panels. The panels set them back £10,500, and the pump cost £7,700 – roughly £29,000 in today’s money that Mr Watts regarded as a sound investment.

“I was beginning to worry about how we were going to cope in the future,” Mr Watts then told the paper, noting that his bills were rising each month. “I’ve worked out that even if fuel prices stay the same, the heat pump will have paid for itself in five years and the panels in under 10. It’s too early to see how much money we’re making from them, but on a sunny day our electricity meter goes backwards. It’s a wonderful sight.”

Almost two decades later, Mr Watts is doubtful the switch saved him much money, because in more recent years, so-called all-electric houses like his have been hamstrung by high electricity rates. “We don’t save a lot relative to oil and gas, but I would still recommend any house with a heat pump also gets solar panels,” he says.

Even so, households like Mr and Mrs Watts, who bet on green technology early, laughed all the way to the bank when the cost of living crisis yanked expensive home improvements out of reach for many. Generous tariffs for early adopters of solar panel owners meant that a savvy few even turned their energy bills into a profit.

These payment schemes, which allow households to sell power back to the Grid at times of high demand, are noticeably less generous than they were for new adopters, and Mr Watts is lucky in that his contract was fixed for 25 years. The retiree says exporting power back to the Grid shaves around £900 a year off his energy bill.

“We’d be on a river cruise talking about how our heat pump worked, and people looked at us in utter amazement,” Mr Watts says. “They thought we’d gone round the twist.”

Even today, the couple remains an oddity in their village, where most households continue to rely on heating oil – a pollutant fuel type that previous governments have been keen to phase out.

The Government wants 600,000 heat pumps installed every year as part of its drive to reach net zero by 2050. Households can apply through an MCS-accredited installer for a £7,500 grant, via the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS), towards a heat pump, but the technology remains expensive to buy and install.

Like any heating system, a heat pump requires replacement. “We’re getting on in years and there’s always the possibility of it suddenly breaking down,” Mrs Watts says. “We wanted to make sure we wouldn’t suffer if we couldn’t get it replaced quickly.”

However, the BUS grant only applies to households installing a heat pump for the first time, so Mr and Mrs Watts, who never benefited from such funding, will have to pay full price to replace theirs. So far, installers have quoted the couple up to £17,000 for the job.

Mike Foster, of the Energy Utilities Alliance trade body, told The Telegraph that installers were likely “trying their luck with an older couple”, noting that “most of the upfront costs would have been incurred when the original heat pump was fitted.”

However, Mr Foster also warned that “a heat pump’s lifespan is the same as a gas boiler – about 15 years.” He added: “Early adopters will soon start to replace their heat pumps, and it will be more expensive than a straight boiler-to-boiler replacement.”

Labour is desperate to bring down the cost of installing a heat pump, but stubborn inflation has meant the cost has crept up despite generous grants. A Telegraph investigation found that even after factoring in inflation, the cost of installing a heat pump has still risen by £700 in six years – despite promises from successive governments it would fall in real terms.

For early adopters like Mr and Mrs Watts, who invested in the technology believing it to be better for the environment and their own finances, the failure to bring down these costs bites especially hard.

“They’re giving out thousands of pounds to people just starting out with heat pumps and we don’t qualify,” Mr Watts says. “Being old age pensioners, we can’t afford to pay £17,000 for a new system.”

“We considered ourselves pioneers, and it would be very kind if anyone who had a heat pump pre-2010 could get a grant to replace it,” Mr Watts says.

Mr Watts hopes that Daikin, the manufacturer who provided their current heat pump, may repay the loyalty the couple has shown over the years – and indeed the publicity they’ve brought the industry – by offering them a discount. 

After being approached by The Telegraph, a spokesman for the company said: “We value Mr Watts’ loyalty and appreciate his contribution to promoting heat pumps. If Mr Watts wishes to upgrade his system, Daikin has offered to supply a discounted heat pump.”

A government spokesman said: “Heat pumps are three times more efficient than gas boilers, enabling families to save around £100 a year by using a smart tariff.

“There is zero VAT on heat pumps until March 2027. Overall installation costs are coming down and will continue to do so for all consumers as the market develops. We are also exploring private finance options, such as loans, to support homeowners with the upfront costs of heat pumps.”